On a sled trip down the mountain with his friends, Peter Lundstrom, a twelve-year-old Norwegian boy from the village of Riswyk, sees his fisherman Uncle Victor far below on the fjord. His early return puzzles Peter, since it's only April and winter is still in full force in the Arctic Circle. Later Peter finds the real reason for his uncle's return. Peter's father is a banker, and his uncle is there to help them smuggle Norway's gold away to the safety of America before the German forces can get their hands on it. Peter is thrilled that the plan involves the children. For once, he'll be able to have adventures like his uncle.
But the danger of the plan is very real, and depends on the cold staying longer than usual. The boys and girls, each carrying a few bricks at a time, must move more than thirteen tons of gold bullion from a secret snow cave the adults have built in the woods. By hiding the bricks under a piece of burlap and laying on top of it on their sleds, they hope that the German soldiers won't stop and search the children. Once they complete the nine mile trip down the mountain to the Snake where Uncle Victor's boat is hidden, the children bury the bullion in the snow and build snowmen over the top so that Uncle Victor and his first mate Lars can find it in the dark.
The trip is hard on the children, and in everyone's mind is the worry that they must hurry. Will the weather hold long enough for them to get all the gold to the Snake? When the Germans demand that school be started again, do they suspect what the children are up to? And who is the young soldier that seems to be spying on the children?
There are some books that you purchase to read over and over because the story is so well told, and the characters act with a level of self-sacrifice that you admire deeply. Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan is such a book. A real story from the 1940's, it reveals the amazing courage of a group of children who risked their own lives in a grueling race against time to save their country's gold from the hands of the Nazi invaders. Snow Treasure was originally published in 1942 during World War II, but is still in print and is easy to obtain through Amazon or Barnes and Noble bookstores. Local libraries carrying copies of this historic adventure are the Gail Borden, Bartlett, and Schaumburg.
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